Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson

Kate has always wanted to go to Blackmoore and now she finally has her chance. Henry Delafield (the neighbor boy that she grew up with) has invited her to stay at Blackmoore over the summer. Kate sees this as her first step towards independence and her end goal–India. Her mother proposes a deal. If Kate can receive and reject three marriage proposals while at Blackmoore, then she will be allowed to go to India with her aunt. What Kate doesn’t plan on is the hearts she might have to break (hers included) to fulfill her end of the bargain.

I thought Kate was a great character. She’s stubborn and willful and overall just very complex. You could sense that she had a lot of things (and feelings) that she was struggling with but she wasn’t whiny about it. She just kind of did what she needed to do and moved on. Henry was also a good character but I felt like he could have had a little more depth to him. He was nice enough, and I liked him, but maybe just a little flat. Especially when compared to Kate. As for the mothers…Mrs. Worthington (Kate’s mom) and Mrs. Delafield (Henry’s mom) were seriously outrageous. Are there actually mothers out there like this?

The only thing I really didn’t like about this book was that I felt like there were a few plot holes. Small ones, but sometimes I was like, “Why can’t anyone see a solution to this?” For example, when Kate’s mother shows up at Blackmoore acting really inappropriate and such I felt like Kate should have teamed up with Mrs. Delafield. Mrs. Delafield would have been all for making Kate’s mom look like a fool so…it felt like an obvious choice to me. Maybe not though. Overall I thought this book was great (and clean!) and I can easily overlook any plot holes.